County Officials Continue To Delay Progress on Homeless Shelter

CLAYTON, MO (KMOX) – A petition to get the homeless out of downtown St. Louis could put a greater burden on St. Louis County.

Though the administration of St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley promised a new homeless shelter in the county by the beginning of the year, there isn’t one.

In fact, there isn’t even a site selected.

Dooley says there are limiting factors, like cost, worsened by sequestration’s effect on federal funding.

“Now it makes it even more difficult with the federal sequester,” he said. “We don’t know where the money’s going to come from now so we have to be very careful about how we move forward with federal dollars with the homeless.”

Another factor is the fact that Dooley can only place a shelter in unincorporated St. Louis County rather than in any municipality.

“We do not have jurisdiction in a municipality,” he said, “so that narrows our focus.”

He still would not give a timeline for when the county hopes to find a suitable shelter location.

“We look at the cost factors, at the sequester, and right now we have some reductions in some of the federal programs already,” Dooley said.